[Suggestion] Maybe it's time for some outside help

Hey SOE,

Look, I know you guys are working your tails off getting everything pushed out the door before deadlines. Generally, I'd say you're doing a good job, but a few of the moves you've made recently are baffling to me.

For one thing, you've made the Dalton all but useless against infantry without doing the same to MBT AP guns. I understand making the Dalton a niche weapon instead of the all-singing all-dancing weapon every Lib gunner wants, but I don't understand why you can one shot infantry with a shot from an AP Prowler but not from a Dalton.

Then there's this whole Striker fiasco. I assume all of you are pretty bright to be chosen to work on a game like this, so I'm at a loss as to why you would take away the Striker's ability to lock onto ground vehicles and cut the damage dealt to 100 per rocket.

I've also noticed that there's nothing scheduled on the Roadmap past October. If that's a move towards a more "it'll be released when it's ready" approach to development then that would be great, but the lack of input leaves us all to fill in those blanks on our own, and some people -- a lot of people -- are going to lose confidence.

So... maybe it's time for some outside input. I'm not saying you guys can't do the job on your own. I'm just saying another professional's opinion couldn't hurt. Maybe they could point out a thing or two that could be improved in your development/testing/information gathering processes.

You can OHK an infantryperson with a Dalton last I checked... it just needs to be a direct hit.

Just like with a MBT AP cannon.

The only difference is that it's easier to hit them with an MBT AP cannon because tanks are closer to the infantry... the downside to this of course is that tanks are closer to the infantry.

So yea...

DICE. The developers of the Battlefield series. They have one of the most experienced and well-coordinated teams out there right now. Their guys are masters in the 3D model, design, and animation department. Above all else their games are fluid and good-looking. The games feel great with spot on voice acting and solid facial animations. I can't stress the 3D modeling part enough, these guys have worked on multiple FPS military style shooters and would be a great asset to have when working with a faction like the Terran Republic.

Bad thing?

EA.

^Eerything he said.

Seriously, is OP a troll post? If so 10/10. Fooled me.

Don't make me laugh. DICE made tons of horrible design and balance decisions entirely on their own independent of EA.

The problem is outside input costs money, which they're apparently not willing to spend. I mean, the development process would probably be going much faster and more smoothly if they just had another coder or two. And let's be honest, your two gripes are a bit nitpicky in the grand scheme of things. If you had said something about hitching or bad hit detection, I'd be more inclined to agree, since those things make the game unplayable for those who experience them frequently.

Let me help you with what you really wanted to say, no need to be shy here (they don't read official forums anyway)

- Nice, sarcasm! I like this....

- because it was fun

I was more focused on the graphical optimization of the game as well as new weapon models. Also the animations have always looked so unnatural and clunky and could use a change. One rule about FPS animations is that the animation or weapon should never cover the crosshair in the process, a lot of weapons do this and have an impact on player performance.

Graphical Optimization in DICEs latest BF games have been just as questionable as PS2s.
I remember pre-order hell from BF3 in which the Drivers released by Nvidea were BETA and working in development with the FB3 engine. It was the Triangle Nightmare.

Also, the BF engines are great but they still use other engines within side itself. For example, the Animation is so good not just because DICE may have great Animators; but because they use an engine called "ANT", which was actually developed by FIFA developers and not by DICE.
Melding the two engines together creates some hilarious but ... over time, frustratingly annoying bloopers like the constant stiff animation bugs or the creepy elongated necks and flailing limbs. The flailing limbs were particularly annoying on dead bodies as it was confusing to see in-game because Proning is allowed. Sometimes couldn't tell if the guy was die or not since his character went into an epileptic seizure...

Also, on the part of irony - DICE themselves made the mistake that we on PS2 have whined about for 2 years; hit detection vs the lag compensation. I'm sure you've seen the many many articles on youtube about DICEs experiment to up the tick-rate on their servers so that the problem was corrected.
This may not be engine related; but hey - worth noting that even an Industry Star Child Studio makes stupid mistakes for the sake of development costs.


If you REALLY want to help PS2? Get investors to give them some damned funds. That'd help more than having us "advise" them or requesting "DICE" or "PANDEMIC" (R.I.P. Pandemic... we'll miss you) to tell them how to their own jobs.
Most of game's issues these days is the lack of vision from the devs whom are pressed hard by their corporate bosses. Change up how the upper management thinks and things will be drastically different.

That's so much easier said than done, though; obviously.

You're sure?

If that's the case, my mistake. I tried this out in game, but maybe everyone was wearing flak armor.

DICE and SOE...
Hmm, that would be OVERLY interesting.
Also, #StarWarsHype

Given I started playing PS2 mainly because Battlefield 4 was unplayable, I don't want DICE - or EA - anywhere the **** near this game.

Yup. The Liberator "nerf" patch notes are here.

They significantly reduced blast radius and damage, but they actually increased direct hit damage. Now a direct hit from a Dalton should deal 2450 damage... which should kill any infantryperson even if they have Flak 5.

So really you're probably just missing them. Like with MBT AP rounds, a close miss is still a miss!

PS2 vs BF3 vs BF4 (on my PC):
BF4 - 1600x900, medium, 45 fps
BF3 - 1920x1080, medium-high, 45 fps
PS2 - 1600x900, low, 20-50 fps (average - 30)
And BFs on those sets look 3x better than PS2

PS2 though is designed to handle a lot more things at once than the BFs...

... ... ...*FACEPALM*

Can we just forget the paragraph about the Dalton ever existed? Could we make that happen, please?

DICE, Red names for everybody and anticheat from the 90s.

So... I just got through playing. Hit an infantryman with a Dalton round. It wasn't a MAX. And when the round hit, I got that X in a circle hit indicator.

Is that X in a circle indicator not indicative of a direct hit? Or was I right the first time, and Dalton body shots don't kill infantry?

The "X" indicator simply means that you hit them... directly or indirectly. You can try it with all sorts of other explosive weapons... indirect hits will still show the "X" indicator.

If they survived, then you didn't directly hit them.

Either that or the "no damage" glitch.